


Our Crayon-Colored World

by caraxreve



Series: Our Crayon-Colored World [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Future Fish Au, Holy Trinity of Free!, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-10-20
Packaged: 2018-02-07 23:03:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1917351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caraxreve/pseuds/caraxreve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin, Rei and Haruka grow up to live the life they dreamed about as children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work is not beta-ed. Please feel free to point any mistakes :).

~ RIN AND AI ~

 

As soon as his shift was over, Rin had gone home, changed and showered;  and was now enjoying the relaxed feeling of wearing civilian clothes as he made his way through the halls of Iwatobi’s Kindergarten school.   Classes had finished an hour ago, and the door of classroom B was waiting for him slightly ajar as usual;   still, Rin knocked twice to announce himself before pushing it open.

“Ai?”

He couldn’t help but let his jaw drop in surprise at the current sight.  The usually tidy, organized and harmonious room,  was a colorful mess comprised of toys, books and art supplies, either set on wrong places, or scattered all over the floor.

“Rin!”  

Aiichirou came through the bathroom door and made his way towards him. Rin stepped inside and moved forward to meet him halfway.

“What the-“

“Careful!”

He jumped back immediately, realizing he had come close to tripping over a bucket of water.

“ Geez, Ai!  What is this doing here in the first place?”

The boy  threw himself into Rin’s arms, pressing against his chest and resting his head on his shoulder.

“I just finished wiping the paint marks off the furniture... “

Aiichirou looked  the very picture of exhaustion: tousled lavender hair, tired blue eyes and an utterly resigned smile on his face. The sleeves of his white sweater were rolled up to his elbows and although he was still wearing the apron, there were countless traces of paint on his arms, neck and all the way up to his face.

Rin placed a kiss on his head and embraced him softly. Even in his current stay of disarray, Ai smelled like sugar, sunlight and that distinct scent exclusive of babies. He heard him sigh contentedly under the gentle stroke of Rin's hand against his back. 

“How are you, Rin? Was your shift alright?”

 “It was fine, _I’m_ fine. What just happened here? “

Aiichirou disentangled himself from Rin’s arms and made his way towards a lump of clay smudged over the tiled floor. He knelt down and started scrapping it off with a small spatula.

“Well, the children got a little over excited with today’s visit…”

“Who was that? Godzilla?”

Aiichirou laughed, and shook his head lightly. 

"Nanase-kun, remember?”

“Tch. Same difference.”  He assured him as he bent down to pick up a stuffed animal that had caught between his feet, the thing was missing an eye and one of its legs was barely hanging by a thread.  “What, did he make them _hunt_ their food?”

“Worse. He offered them freshly baked cinammon cookies…”

“ _Before_ lunch time?!”

Ai gave him a knowing look and Rin immediately pulled out his cell phone.

“Rin, no!  What are you doing?”

“Making him take responsibility for this, what else?”

“Don’t do that! He took the trouble of coming here during his working hours _as a favor_ , I don’t want him to think that I’m ungrateful or-“

“He won’t. I’ll make perfectly clear  _I’m_ the one having a problem with this.”

“Rin, stop, I’m sure he meant well…“

 “Ai, _everybody_ knows better than to feed sugar to a bunch of toddlers on an empty stomach!”

 “People don’t normally know these things, you know?  I do because it’s my job, and you do because you listen to me when I talk about it.”

Aiichirou’s sweet voice had  Rin averting his eyes from the phone for an instant and he felt the warm sensation on his chest transform into a blush on the way up to his face.

“Well they should!" he typed some more and shut his phone close with an indisputable finality. Before Ai could said anything else, he fetched the hamper designated for the stuffed animals and grumpily  threw the fluffy creature inside.

“Wait! Not that one. I’m taking her home with us to fix her!” 

Rin took the raggedy thing out, absolutely conviced there was no hope for it, but still placed it carefully over Aiichirou’s desk as requested. Then he started moving around the room, collecting books and toys alike, placing them on their respective shelves and boxes. He'd cast his eyes over Aiichirou every once in a while, to look at his progress. 

“I’m sorry I’m making us late for lunch.”

“It’s not your fault, Ai."

 "Yeah, but aren't you hungry?"

Rin shrugged. 

"I grabbed a granola bar before I came here. What about you?"

"I had cookies, remember?"

“Yeah..." Rin said as he set his eyes on the plastic cups brimming with painted water. "I’m taking these to the back, okay?” 

“Thanks. I’m almost done, I swear! ”

“It’s okay, take your time. The restaurant is not going anywhere."

Rin took the cups and brushes to the sink, where he let them soak and patiently scrubbed them off. Once he was finished, he dried them up one by one and placed them on a neat row over a wooden shelf. Just then, Aiichirou showed up with the bucket of water Rin had almost tripped over and flushed the content down the toilet, giving it a quick rinse on the sink before putting it away.

"All done! We can go now!" he announced triumphantly, pushing back his bangs with the heel of his hand and unknowingly smearing a blotch of paint across his temple. Rin chuckled and grabbed his hand.

“Come here, you hot mess.”

As Rin pulled him towards the sink Aiichirou’s disheveled reflection stared back at them in awe.

“Wah! I didn’t realize I looked this bad!"

"You mean you weren't wearing those on purpose?"

Aiichirou bumped his shoulder against Rin with a small pout. Rin smirked at him playfully, grabbing the hot pink towel and placing it under the warm water stream.

“Those children sure had a blast today, huh?  What about you, though? Is this turning out as you wanted?"

“Are you kidding? I couldn’t have asked for anything better! What with Makoto-kun coming yesterday, and you and Sousuke-kun the day before that... firefighter and police officer are the most popular professions among children, you know?”

"I do." Rin said as he gently wiped the smears off Aiichirou's face. "That’s why Haru had to bribe them with cookies. And just wait until tomorrow, when Nagisa and Rei come to hand out those tickets. You'll have the whole class wanting to become astronauts...” 

 “You’re right!" Ai laughed merrily. "On Monday, when Yazaki-san was here, everybody had already decided on being a pilot! Which reminds me: thank you so much for making that happen, Rin. It sets a great example for the children to meet a female pilot."

“You have Makoto to thank for that one. I hadn’t talked to her in ages. She’s more his and Haru’s friend actually.” 

“But it was you who talked Tachibana-kun into doing this, and, all of them actually...”

Rin turned his head to the side, to avoid Aiichirou's gaze. Of course he had talked every single one of them into doing this. He would've talked them into traveling to the the middle of the desert if he had had to. Still he decided not to make much of it.

“Tch. They might as well make themselves useful, you know? I mean, I can't say anything bad about Makoto because he’s a firefighter. And I guess it’s not that bad being treated to free food every once in a while, eventhough most of it is just fish. But Nagisa? He _literally_ spends the whole day playing at the museum! And Rei, I’m not even sure if that dork does _anything_ at all!”

“Rin! Don't say that! Rei-kun has a PhD in Physics!” 

“What are you taking his side?” Rin teased as he playfully kneaded Aiichirou's face with the towel.

Ai burst into laughter, desperately trying to fend him off.

"Rin,no! Stooop!"

Rin aquiesced and turned around to hang the cloth on the perch. 

"So, you ready to go?"

"Yes!"

Rin took Aiichirous hand in his, and gave a quick look back before turning off the lights and shutting the door close behind them.

“Wait, Rin? I forgot something!”

“What?”

Ai suddenly stood on his tiptoes and pressed their lips together. Rin stumbled back in surprise and hit the bathroom door with a soft thud, reaching out for Aiichirou's waist to regain his balance and letting out a welcoming sigh.

It was very brief, but during that half of a second, Ai's lips set a fiery sensation all over Rin's body. Just like pleasant feeling of recalling happy memories, but stronger, brighter and full of possibilities and promises.  

 Aiichirou's soles hit the ground, and their eyes met. Ai was smiling at him radiantly. 

"Thank you, Rin." 

 He pulled Ai into his arms tightly. 

“Tch. Like you don’t already know why I did it… ”

 


	2. Chapter 2

~ REI AND NAGISA ~

The loft they shared near downtown had become the epitome of Rei and Nagisa’s relationship: Rei was the clean sharp structure of their industrial space. Nagisa was the chaotic assortment of belongings that they had collected over time. 

They had just come back from work, and while Rei hung his coat neatly, placed the keys on the small crystal tray and looked through the mail, Nagisa bounced past him, hurriedly toeing off his shoes  and dropping his backpack on his way to the couch; on which he unceremoniously plopped down. 

“Nagisa-kun…”

“I just want to rest my eyes a little bit, Rei-chan.”

“You always say that and you end up falling asleep on the couch nonetheless”

The aforementioned couch, purposefully, hardly looked like one. It was presently buried under blankets and cushions, spacecraft magazines and Nagisa's body towel. Rei approached the couch and started picking up the issues, stacking them on a proper pile over the table. He lifted Nagisa’s leg to retrieve two more copies and the remote from underneath.

“Rei-chan!”

“If you’re so tired, go get changed and get into bed properly.”

“I’m not! Besides, it’s Friday. Let’s make popcorn and watch a movie.”

“It’s almost dinner time. Eating popcorn will ruin your appetite.” 

“I never understand it when you say that. How can eating ruin your apetite? That’s what eating is all about in the first place!” Nagisa rolled over and reached for the phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna order something from Goro’s place.”

“You’re most certainly not. We cannot have take out every day, Nagisa-kun. It’s not healthy. I’ll make us a nutritious dinner instead.”

“But it's been a week since the last time we ordered something!” Nagisa protested hiding his face under the TV blankets.

“I’m washing those now, by the way. Could you please move over?”

Nagisa shuffled a bit to the left.

“And the towel you just rolled over onto as well..."

The other boy scooted grumpily yet once more and Rei yanked the soaking towel from below. 

"Nagisa-kun, I clearly remember telling you-- is that one  _my_ towel?! Did you just empty the lastlaundry load over here?! _”_

“Rei-chan, you’re so mean!” Nagisa reproached as he trashed his legs and jumped off the couch.

He made a show of stomping to the chair and curling up there instead. Rei immediately followed after.

“ _Me_?! How am I mean?"

“I’m tired and you won’t let me rest.”

“But that‘s why I told you to go to bed!" He dropped down to his knees and patiently explained his argument to the back of Nagisa's head.  "You won’t get your usual day off tomorrow, and the event on Sunday is going be very demanding. Please go get some rest. I’m genuinely concerned for your well being, Nagisa-kun.”

Nagisa turned to look at him over his shoulder and after the briefest hesitation threw his arms around his neck.

“But I want to be with Rei-chan!” 

Rei felt the warmth of Nagisa’s words settle in his heart and reached out to pat his head awkwardly.

“Well, we can watch the movie like you wanted..."

"And have take out?" 

Rei nodded in a conciliatiory manner. 

"But _absolutely_ no gore this time! Those movies always leave you in a state of manic agitation and you need to get a proper night’s rest."

Nagisa fell back to the chair with a satisfied expression.

“That’s fine. I’ll let Rei-chan choose the movie this time then.”

“I need to finish loading the machine first.” Rei informed as he stood up and made his way to the stairs.

“I’ll wait for you.”

“You don’t need to. Go ahead and I’ll catch up when I’m done.”

“No! You always say that and show up after the movie is halfway through!”

“Any simple task takes twice as much when I'm constantly tripping over things you leave on the floor.” Rei called back from upstairs. 

Nagisa said nothing to that.

The second level of the loft was just like the rest of the place: in a permanent state of disarray. To be fair, not all of the misplaced things were Nagisa’s,  half of the stuff was Rei’s. Except that it was never Rei who disarranged them in the first place. He had to clear the bed from a bottle of hair product, two of his shirts and least three different volumes of “Universal History of Our Time”, before actually being able to take off the sheets. Downstairs Nagisa was getting impatient. 

“Rei-chan, are you done yet?”

As he made his way around the bed, Rei tripped over Nagisa’s slippers and barely avoided falling over the matress.

"I'm not even going to dignify that question with an answer, Nagisa-kun!"

Nagisa went back to being quiet. For about 2 seconds.

“I’m gonna call Mako-chan to ask about Sunday!”

“I don't think you should. He’s on duty today and you could be bothering him, send a text message instead.”

“It’s okay, I can leave a voice message if he doesn’t pick up..."

Rei considered the situation and decided not to push further. If anything, in case Makoto was actually available to talk, this would give him enough time to put the room back in order.  

"Send him my regards then."

*~*

Rei came down 30 minutes later to find out, that just as predicted from the start, Nagisa had fallen asleep on the couch.  He was still clutching the phone in his hand and his neck was twisted in a weird angle. Rei sighed as he put down the laundry basket and approached Nagisa.

“You’re going hurt your neck like that, Nagisa-kun...” He gently pried the phone off and set it on the table. Then he folded Nagisa's arms over his chest and scooted him up. Nagisa shuffled in his arms and pressed his cheek to Rei's shoulder. His hand reached out to hold onto the collar of his shirt as his mouth mumbled unintelligible words against his neck. 

He took him upstairs and carefully set him down over the white duvet of the freshly made bed. Rei moved the decorative cushions to the reading chair and pulled down the shutters to prevent the light of the street from coming in.  Then he went back to Nagisa  and removed his pants so that he could be comfortable.

"Nagisa-kun" he whispered gently "Get under the sheets or you'll get a cold."

He twisted around as Rei pulled the covers over him, and let out a satisfied sigh when his face hit the fresh pillow case. 

"Rei-chan drives a car... made of clouds.”

An affected smile spread over Rei's face. The invariale ocurrence of Nagisa dreaming about him always tugged a very delicate string on his heart. Even if Nagisa's dreams were usually capricious, nonsensical and confusing to say the least,  they were also constant, enthusiastic  and all-devoted to Rei.

He kneeled on the floor and pushed a strand of hair out of Nagisa's face,  tenderly carding his fingers through his hair as he moved to the back of his head. 

Rei had avidly studied far too many theories during his life, specifically those concerning energy and force. And although theories were constantly rebuked and replaced, one thing remained unequivocal: No gravitational force came _remotely_ close to the one that Nagisa exerted over him. He softly pressed their foreheads together and placed a light kiss on Nagisa's lips.

Nagisa hummed aprovingly, bringing yet another smile to Rei's lips as he pushed himself up the floor. Before he was able to stand fully though, his wrist was yanked backwards and he awkwardly tumbled on top of Nagisa. 

“N-Nagisa!” Rei’s cheeks flared as he struggled to fix his glasses “Why did you do that for?”

Nagisa let out a delighted chuckle. 

"Because, I didn't want you to stop..."

"What?"

"I like it when Rei-chan plays with my hair ..."

Rei cleared his throat in a futile attempt to get rid of the funny sensation that tricked down his chest. 

"You could've just asked. Like normal people do."

"Please?" 

He clumsily sat back on the floor and rested his head next to Nagisa's, hesitantly caressing the line of his hair and carding his fingers further and further as Nagisa closed his eyes with a content exhale. Rei's mind raced reminding him of all the things he still had to do, but in the end his body couldn't be persuaded against drifting off to sleep.

Nagisa, far ahead of him, was back to mumbling in his sleep.

"Rei chan... that's a lot of stars in the sky."

"Infinite."

.

.

"I love you all of them..."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The makoharu chapter of this fic is gonna take way longer than intended. I just realized Rintori Week is 3 weeks from now and I want to try and fill as much prompts as possible.  
> I'm really sorry for the inconvinnience ú_ù!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is not beta-ed. Please feel free to point any mistakes :).

~ HARUKA AND MAKOTO ~

 

Haruka opened the back door leaving the conundrum of the busy kitchen behind. He took a deep breath of fresh morning air. Today was the apprentices' first day and things were more chaotic than usual but that was beyond his mind now because he was on his break. 

Ever since he started working at the restaurant, Haruka had timed his break so that it would match the time of Makoto’s end of shift. Because everyday, as soon as his shift was over, instead of taking the five minute bus ride to their place, Makoto jogged three blocks to Haruka’s restaurant and then walked ten more to get home.

Haruka had told him countless times, albeit halfhearteldy, not to come. After an extenuating 48 hour shift, Haruka wanted nothing more than for Makoto to go straight home, have breakfast, a nice bath, and get some deserved sleep. And yet, again, he found himself unable to stop the accelerated beat of his heart at the sight of Makoto turning into the alley.

“Good morning, Haru.”

“You ran all the way here, again…”

Makoto smiled knowingly eyes resting on the parcel hanging from his hand.

“You made me lunch…”

Haruka scoffed and offered the bento pointedly avoiding his gaze.

“There’s also rice at home and some mackerel that I grilled yesterday’s night, for you to have breakfast.”

He turned around and a sat at the steps closely followed by Makoto.

 “Thank you, Haru…” Makoto whispered sweetly as he placed a soft kiss on his jaw, right under his ear.

Haruka had the good presence of mind to breathe before he spoke but his voice still came soft and small.

“Was your shift, alright?”

“Yeah, it was pretty calm. I received a call from Nagisa and we even got to talk for quite a while. He wanted-"

Makoto stopped himself in mid-sentence as the backdoor was suddenly thrown open. Both of them turned their heads at the same time to look at the source of the sound. One of Haruka’s new apprentice was standing in the threshold her cheeks smudged with flour and her apron in a poor condition.

“Nananse-san, we’re having a problem with- _Oh_!”

The girl’s eyes shifted nervously between him and Makoto.  Haruka just looked at her sternly.

“S-sorry! I- I’ll just… I'll ask someone else.”

She hurriedly stepped back inside.

Haruka turned to look at  Makoto, waiting for him resume their conversation as if nothing had happened. 

Makoto let out an embarrassed chuckle.

“I’m sorry, Haru. I didn’t know you were so busy today... do you need to go back there.”

Haruka gave him an annoyed look and stood up abruptly.

“If you, _too_ , can’t understand that I’m on my break, I might as well do so.”

Haruka made as if to reach for the door but Makoto immediately caught his arm pulling him back down gently.

“Please don't, even though it's selfish, I'd really like for Haru to stay here with me...”

Embarrassing as he considered the words to be, Haruka's heart still basked in them. He sat back placing his chin on his hand in an attempt to hide his burning cheeks from Makoto's knowing eyes.

Makoto smiled and placed the bento aside in order to scoot closer to Haruka’s side.

“So, Nagisa called yesterday…he wanted to know if-“

“I do. I got the day off.”

“Really? Haru, that's great! I’ll call him as soon as I get home to let him know!”

Makoto went on talking about how Rei had pitched the project to the university where he did research, and how it had taken around 6 months for it to get aproved. Then he commented on how hard Rei and Nagisa had been working during last year and a half to make the whole thing come up together. and about how noble it was of Rei to have done all this for Nagisa.

Haruka said nothing. He was very aware of Rei's feelings for Nagisa. Not so different from Rin's own, who had tirelessly pestered them about participating in Aiichirou's project. He didn't really find it surprising that Rei was willing to go to such extents to make Nagisa happy. Haruka understood it completely. What's more, he was able to _feel_ it. He was feeling it at that very moment, in fact, just like everyother time he looked at Makoto. 

“… It’s nice that we all can make it. Nagisa will surely appreaciate our support. I heard Aiichirou-kun is bringing his whole class too! Wasn’t that nice for Nagisa to get them tickets?  Speaking of which, how did it go on Thursday?”

“Fine. The children were very happy”

"Are you sure?"

Haruka frowned at Makoto's strained tone. 

"Yes..." Haruka trailed off as Makoto pulled out his cellphone and showed it to him. 

There were several texts messages from Rin, but Haruka only bothered with reading the ones at the very end:

 

 

> He’s ignoring his phone AGAIN.
> 
>  
> 
> You tell that sad excuse of a TUNA FISH he better show up on Sunday!!

 

Haruka shrugged uninterested.

“He’s probably mad because the children liked me better than him…”

“He sent this this picture attached.”

Makoto scrolled downwards and twisted the screen in Haruka's direction.

Haruka spared a quick glance to an image that looked like Aiichirou-kun's classroom after an earthquake.  

“I have no idea what that is about.”

“Haru...”

“I don’t!”

“So you’re telling me this has _nothing_ to do with yet another one of those silly contests of Rin’s and yours?”

“There’s no contest. I beat him all the time."

“Does it then?”

Haruka turned his head away from Makoto in a haughty gesture.

“You’re being annoying.”

"Haru, the least you could do is apologize to Aiichirou-kun. He-"

“I did _nothing_  ! I talked to them, answered their questions and gave them cookies. How am I to blame for that?”

“ What? Haru!" Makoto let out in a defeated whine. "You can't go around offering unsupervised amounts of sugar to small children! They follow pretty strict food schedules!  Aiichirou-kun must’ve had a really hard time with them after you left.”

Haruka pondered at this for a moment and got to the discouraging conclusion that Makoto was probably not entirely wrong. 

“...they _did_ seem rather excited.”

Makoto groaned, and started typing what Haruka assumed was an apology for Rin.

“Don't do that. I’ll apologize tomorrow.”

“ _You_ will? To _Rin_? Makoto asked clearly skeptical. 

“I can bake a cake or something...”

“ _More_ sugar?”

“For _them.”_

“Haru, Rin doesn’t even like sweets…”

“Aiichirou-kun does and that's good enough.”

“Alright then then." Makoto compromised "I’ll let them know we’ll see them there tomorrow.”

Haruka  swiftly snatched the cellphone from Makoto's hands and looked for Rin's contact

“I’ll do it.”

“You want to text him?”

Haruka decidedly ignored Makoto's face of disconcert.

 

 

> Stop texting me.

 

“Haru! What are you doing?”

Haruka moved the cellphone out of Makoto's reach. 

 “Don’t send that! That’s my cellphone you’re sending it from!”

He ignored him and pressed send, (as if Rin could have any doubt of who sent the message really…)

“Haru!”

“This is not a toy. Rin uses it like a toy and I want him to stop.”

Makoto chuckled intrigued.

“What does that even mean?” 

“He uses it as a camera and to engage in long text conversations.” 

“Well, that’s what cellphones are for...”

“No! Cellphones are for _important_ things. Like something happening to Makoto while on duty.”

“ _Haru_ …” 

"...or even off duty." Haruka added lowering his face shyly.

Makoto shifted, closing the space between them. He gently pried the cellphone off Haruka's hands and put it aside. Haruka raised his head bashfully at the feeling of the soft brushing of Makoto's lips against his cheek. He felt Makoto intertwining their fingers together as he softly pressed his lips at the corner of Haruka's mouth. His warm breath sending a tingling sensation through- 

-CRASH-

An ungodly noise of clattering pans and smashing glass made them jump apart. Makoto hurriedly stood up in concern.

"What just happened?" 

"Nothing, it's just-"

A second crash drowned Haruka's voice immediately followed by faintly muted voices that started blaming each other energically. 

"“I- I think you definitely need to get back there, Haru.”

Makoto leaned down to gather his cellphone and  the bento while Haruka sighed and glared at the kitchen door. 

“I'm going home. Thanks for the lunch again!”

"Makoto." Haruka stood up and gripped Makoto's wrist, a determined look on his face.

 "Eh? Haru, what-"

He pulled him towards him, taking advantage of the momentum to bury his fingers on the back of his hair and bring their lips together in a searing kiss. He thrust his tongue swiftly, trying to taste all of Makoto in that quick but fervent motion. When Haruka broke the kiss they intently inhaled the hot air coming from each other's mouth. 

"H-Haru..."

" Go home, Makoto. I'll be there early."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! Thank you so much for putting up with such a long wait. <3

**Author's Note:**

> It was just so hard to fit thief!nitori in this au, but those fics will come too I promise :).


End file.
